Initial D: The New Era
by zachthemaniac
Summary: My first fanfic! When a rare Italian car comes to town, nobody is sure if even the great, overrated Takumi Fujiwara can beat him! Revised. Reviews highly appriciated.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1: The New Old Guy in Town**_

_October 19, 1976_

The crowd is pumped. The dirt is flying. The final race of the 1976 WRC championship is underway! The newcomer, Rob Jones, is kicking up dirt in his sweet Lancia Stratos! The youngest WRC driver ever, he is only 16 years old. He blasts around the final turn of the course to win the race…and the championship!

_June 9, 1996_

That was the scene 20 years ago. After Rob got in a horrible accident, he retired and led a private life. He never had a wife or hung out with anyone. He learned Japanese so he could move to Japan, where he could start mountain racing, and best of all, nobody would know who he was. He moved to Japan in January of 1996. It took him longer than he thought to get ready to move to Japan, but it was worth it. He hated living a private life, and now he didn't have to. He bought a Sunburst Yellow street version of his Lancia for mountain racing.

When Rob got to Japan, he beat some of the racers in the Saitama hills, but only because people paid more attention to his car than to their own driving. At around the same time, a certain rising star was making a name for himself over in Gunma prefecture. Rob was new to Japan, so he had never heard of Gunma. One day, a racer named Wataru Akiyama challenged him. Wataru knew that Rob had talent, and there would be no home course advantage. At first, Rob just laughed and said, "Hey, buddy, if I were you, I'd be heading to the junkyard first chance I get. At least they might give you 6,200 yen (about $50 U.S.) for it." He took that back when he saw the boost pressure gauge, though. "Hey, I don't exactly see that ugly thing on the cover of Modern Auto Magazine, either," replied Wataru. "At least my 200HP midship has better traits than your Hachi, Eight-Six boy," yelled Rob. "Show me some track skills, ancient car man! And by the way, my car can top 280HP at full speed." answered Wataru. Rob just stared. A 280HP Eight-Six was unheard of!

They persuaded a oncoming driver to start the countdown for them.

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Go!"

The cars took off like jets. Rob took the lead at the start, but a Hachi-Roku slides a lot better than a midship, so Rob used grip driving at first. For advanced drivers, drifting gives you more line variations, but Rob wanted to take it easy at first. Wataru was a lot better than Rob thought, so Rob started pitching it sideways a little bit. Wataru pulled away on the straights, but Rob maintained his speed through the turns, unlike Wataru, who slowed down into them. After the first lap, they were actually tied, so they went into overtime! "How can his four-banger, 1.6 litre Eight Six keep up with my Ferrari V6! I mean, sure, he's got a horsepower advantage, but my hand-built Lancia midship should smoke him," Rob thought out loud.

Rob decided he had to kick it up a notch, so he used a full-blown drift into the first corner. He still couldn't shake Wataru, and fell behind in the second corner. Wataru still had the lead coming back, until something happened. Something Wataru had experienced a few times, but Rob had never even thought of. Not many people drove the beat-up hills of Saitama anymore, so Rob had never even thought of an oncoming car (Obviously, there were not oncoming cars in WRC). Wataru took advantage of the little space on the side of the road, while Rob swerved into the outside lane. Wataru was ready for the next hairpin, but Rob lost control after swerving out of the way. Rob managed a perfect countersteer to get himself the lead and the inside line on the second part of the s-turn! Because of his super fast Levin, Wataru was once again tailgating Rob.

Meanwhile, at the Takahashi mansion, Ryosuke was busy analyzing the data for the two cars, (He heard about the race from one of his contacts in Saitama) but couldn't find anything about the Stratos because it was a rare Italian car that most Japanese people haven't even heard of. Ryosuke didn't know who would win because he had never seen Rob's skills before, but he did know that it all came down to power vs. car control.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2: The Saitama Elites and Their First Race**_

Ryousuke was amazed that he couldn't even offer a prediction on the race. He knew one thing, though. It was going to be a photo finish!

As the two cars got closer and closer to the finish, another oncoming car was coming around a very wide turn. This one was a dark blue Toyota Supra. Wataru thought drifting would help him, even though the oncoming car was in the inside lane. Rob had great natural instincts, so he knew to grip, even though most people would drift. Gripping on corners like this was dangerous and nearly impossible, but drifting into an oncoming car could be fatal. SCRRRAPPPE! Rob clipped the side of the oncoming Supra and the guardrail. Wataru was at too much of an angle to use the shoulder. He understeered badly in the middle of the turn. He didn't hit the oncoming Supra, but instead flew right past it and understeered right through the guardrail. He flipped his Levin three times and wrapped it around a tree upside-down.

Rob turned around to go check on Wataru. Within 30 seconds, he also saw the car that they almost hit come back to see what happened. The driver got out of the car. He introduced himself. "My name is Tatsuya Tsuchiya," he said. They slowly walked over to what used to be an Eight-Six. They didn't think Wataru could have lived through the crash. He was alive,butjust barely, and bleeding to death. Rob forgot his cell phone, but, luckily, Tatsuya had his. He dialed 911 as fast as he could. The ambulance arrived within five minutes. When itgot there, the paramedics said Wataru's chance of living was slim. They took him away, and Rob and Tatsuya were scared halfto death.

Tatsuya and Rob felt wrong leaving a giant piece of bloody scrap metal to rot around a tree, so they agreed to come back first thing in the morning to clean it up. When Rob asked,Tatsuya said the Drift King was his cousin, and racing ran in their family. Tatsuya's Supra had 300HP, and he raced in Saitama a lot. Tatsuya said that they should race back, just for fun. They were even at the start, but Tatsuya used a high speed feint drift around the long sweeper while Rob gripped it again. Tatsuya pulled ahead, but Rob used an awesome line through the s-turn to tie it up again. Rob stuck with Tatsuya for the next hairpin, but Tatsuya pulled away on the next sweeper turn. Rob was an excellent driver, but he needed more practice on mountain passes. Tatsuya pulled away and was out of sight by the time they finished.

When they got back, Tatsuya was cool about winning. He nicely explained, "Hey, no worries. I've been driving these hills for years. You just started. You'll probably be_ better_ than me after some practice. How about we start a team?" Tatsuya asked. "Cool. I'm in. How about we call it the Saitama Elites?" replied Rob. Tatsuya agreed and gave Rob his cell phone number. Rob did the same.

As soon as Rob and Tatsuya got home, they both started designing team logos. The next day, they decided on Rob's logo. It was red and in Bauhaus 93 writing. Word spread quickly about this race, and by the next day, Team Emperor knew about it. Seiji, with his usual ambitious personality, wanted to race Rob. Kyouichi told him to stay calm, because nobody knew exactly how good Rob was (nobody knew about his race with Tatsuya). Rob went to Iroha for the race, because he wanted to try out some different courses. When Rob and Tatsuya got there, Kyouichi asked,"Which one of you is the leader?" "Me, Tatsuya Tsuchiya," answered Tatsuya. "Okay, Seiji, your wish is granted," Kyouichi told him (Kyouichi wanted to race the leader, which was Tatsuya). When Kyouichi said that, Seiji yelled,"Awesome! Don't worry, Kyouichi, I'll kick this noob's butt right back to America."

Of course, Ryousuke Takahashi told his brother, Keisuke, that he was going to watch the race to observe Rob's technique, and Keisuke cancelled Project D's next race. Takumi was bummed out about missing the race, so he figured the next best thing was to watch the Saitama Elites vs. Emperor meet. Ryousuke figured that while he was there with Kyouichi, he wanted a taste of the action. Kyouichi wanted a rematch with the Eight-Six while Takumi was there. Keisuke wanted to beat Seiji on the downhill so he could be 2-0 against Seiji (Keisuke also beat him at the last Red Suns vs. Emperor meet). With so many races (Five, Tatsuya vs. Kyouichi, Rob vs. Seiji, Takumi vs. Kyouichi, Keisuke vs. Seiji, Ryousuke vs. Kyouichi), everyone decided on a two-day meet. They all wanted a big gallery for most of the races, so they decided to only do two races on the first night (Nobody else was there the first night).

First off was Rob vs. Seiji. Takumi had to go and tell Kouichiro, Kenji, and Itsuki to come. Itsuki, just being his usual crazy self, jumped in front of the two cars and repeatedly yelled,"I got countdown! I got countdown!" until Kouichiro yelled,"Shut up, Itsuki! You're embarassing me!" "Me, too!" Kenji added. "All of you low-level losers shut up! This is a race, not a babble-like-an-idiot contest!" Kyouichi yelled.

Itsuki broke the silence by whispering,"I still got countdown, right?" "Whatever! Just hurry up!" Kyouichi yelled.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

"GO!"

The two cars took off like rockets. Seiji's Evo was faster, but the mid-engine Stratos had equal acceleration. Seiji drifted into the lead in the first turn. He thought that he was very far ahead until he looked to his side.


End file.
